kasiau

Class 12, June 12, 2006, Chapter 9: Assessing Constructive Learning and Problem Solving with Technology.

I was very motivated to read this chapter as I always fear how fair I will be when I will be assessing my students’ work. Therefore, I found this chapter very helpful and informative. I know from my own experience as a student that sometimes the grades don’t always reflect the work that is put into completing an assignment.
I agree with the authors that it is very important for students to know what is expected of them. For this reason, scoring rubrics make life easier not only for the teachers but also for the students, as they serve a purpose of a guide to successful accomplishment of the learning objective. I really liked the authors’ statement that “complex learning cannot be assessed or evaluated using any single measure” (pg. 229). In this regard, the authors suggest that each of the elements should be described in detail instead of just saying one term as an assessment. They describe in detail what a “good rubric” should contain on pages 230 – 232, which I found very helpful.
I also liked the hint to refer to the learning objectives when creating a rubric. I think that it is very important. From my understanding, that is what assessment is meant for – to evaluate the word to see how the learning objectives were met. In addition, “all aspects of a rubric should be focused on providing useful feedback to students that will help them to improve performance.” (pg. 234). This reminds me of the scientific method, where you hypothesize, perform the task (experiment) and evaluate to see where the improvements need to be made. I really like this approach as it makes so much sense. I think that providing feedback for students is very important. A well organized rubric will make that process much more detailed giving the student greater idea on areas that need improvement.
It was very interesting to read the “A RUBRIC FOR ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A RUBRIC” part (234), as it is important to remember that there is always room for improvement and assessment of the assessment tool effectiveness is crucial. I need to say that I didn’t think of that before I read this chapter and I am sure that there is many teachers who, once create a rubric, stick to it for many years. To have a rubric that guides us in the process of evaluating rubrics is just invaluable. On page 235 the authors provided us with a great resource to do just that.
I also think that the students should be involved in creating such rubrics. I know from experience with my school age students that children’s input is priceless. When they set goals for themselves, they are more motivated to achieve them. On page 236, the fifth bullet from the top talks about accessing oneself by creating a rubric – again, a great idea.
When I read the “ASSESSING CONSTRUCTIVIST USE OF TECHOLOGY”, I couldn’t stop thinking about our course. I was relating the assignments we have done to each assessment criteria. I found the rubrics by authors provided, to be great resources.
In fact I think that this entire chapter is a great resources and I am sure I will come back to it and use it in my practice.

At the beginning of this chapter I was confused with regards to the meaning of microworlds. I was expecting to read about computer technology right away and made assumptions. However, I think that at the beginning, the authors regarded to microworlds as to the ones in or environment and those that are computer simulated. I’m not very sure if I got that right. Anyhow, I created my understanding basing on the physical (visible, concrete) and the conceptual (mental) models of learning. I don’t know if I am making much sense here, but in my head it is nicely shelved, except when I am trying to express it, it comes out chaotic.

As I started to read about the computer-based microworlds, I had a question in my mind: aren’t those worlds created by teachers or others like software designers? Aren’t those possibilities limited when the children go and experiment with i.e. different physics variables? I could kind of see how it would not be so difficult to program physics and math microworld because those are disciplines where one can apply many rules, but how about biology and social sciences? Yes the traffic example that was given works well, but is it really a social problem with regards to person to person relations. My response was that computers do only what humans programmed in them. I felt that, from the descriptions of the authors, in some cases, the programs would lack the sensual aspects (such as smell, tactile, or audio) of some disciplines which are important. For some reason I kept thinking about biology and growing plants etc. when I read this chapter.

Having expressed my questions and things I am still skeptical about with regards to this type of learning, on the other hand I just loved all of the examples! I especially liked and agreed with two particular benefits of such learning: it “Emphasizes the usefulness of errors” and “Anticipates and nurtures incidental learning.” (pg193).

I found the OWL project to be extremely interesting! Actually, when I went for my interview at the York University, one of the questions was how I would approach the differences in my students developmental and knowledge levels. I answered that I believe that those students who have greater experience and or knowledge in one area would benefit a great deal if they could become teachers to their peers, and vice versa. This project reminds me of such approach! I also find that the training that the students undergo to become teachers will provide them with skills necessary to be successful at the college or university level.

In addition, the assessment strategies in the chapter provided, remind me of our final project where we will reflect on our learning during the course. We will say what and how we learned, identifying the errors we made and how we used them to learn, and what we discovered we would like to still learn.

When I got to page 202 and read the activities, I was just stunned! It was Latin to me! Meanwhile, it probably is very simple language to many students. I still am not sure what does “turtle” mean – well I know it is an animal, but what does it mean in computer language?

The reading about Virtual Reality was really interesting. When they talked about having the reality projected onto walls, I thought of IMAX Theater. I went for a showing of documentary about butterflies and it was an amazing experience! I could hear the sounds around me and the projection was kind of surrounding as well. I was trying to imagine how the Immersive Virtual Reality would feel.

The Augmented Reality sounded even more abstract to me. I know that there are games where you put some kind of helmet on your head and the apparatus senses your movement and you see a virtual reality, but I have never tried it. A few years ago, there were many incidents of teenagers racing cars on streets of Poland because they were trying to implement their skills gained in such games. Let me explain: they got virtual reality games where they were racing on racing tracks. Whoever won or got to some kind of level would then go and race in real world. Many of them died in crashes as they were driving at very high speeds. Well, teenagers get those ideas sometimes and I just thought that it was interesting to mention here.
I liked the idea of the Virtual Physics lab for NASA. The collaboration between the participants seems very attractive in this project. And it involves different units and students from around the world!

On final note, I was disappointed that the authors didn’t say how one could get such programs. I deducted that some are available on line, but not all of them.

Once again, it was a very interesting and informative reading.
I like the way the authors always start their chapters with paragraphs containing information to educate the reader about the history, definitions, and so on, on the topic discussed in each particular chapter. Those paragraphs are very useful to me as I can begin to comprehend how technology is being developed and how it works. For example, I when they talked about videodisks, I imagined CDs in my imagination. Therefore, I was confused when I started to read about Compact Discs and discovered that the previous paragraph was talking about something different than CDs (I still do not have an image of it in my head). In addition, I still did not understand many of the explanations of how it is done to record a disc – the pixels, and resolutions, and bytes, and so on, - all Latin to me. I just know that the more mega pixels a camera has, the larger picture you can produce with it. But now I have learned not to worry about it too much and just trust the process. I am sure that if I had more experience with digital technology, I would have a better understanding of it. This is in part why I regret that we did not get the time to do the flicker project. On the other hand, I realized that I have been using some of the technology for resizing pictures. When my cousin sends me pictures of her son, they are huge – sometimes it takes a few minutes for the e-mail to open because of them. So I have downloaded a program called XnWiew to make them smaller. There is an option to resize them into desired cm/cm (i.e. 10cm by 14cm) so I have not been using the pixels, but now I know what they are for and can compare and experiment with it. (I will be learning with technology – isn’t that cool to realize!). I have also learned what DVD really means – I never bothered to ask myself that question before and now I am happy I know.

I found it interesting to learn that there is no supportive research on positive effects of multimedia on learning and that despite that, it is still most used teaching devise.
Furthermore, the authors say that hypermedia presentations are popular because they are engaging our senses by using sound and images. So, they get our attention, which is a necessary factor in the learning process. However, the authors argue, and I agree, that attention is not enough for meaningful learning to take place. They suggest, like in previous chapters, that for the learning to be meaningful, the children need to learn with, not from hypermedia. Engaging in hypermedia activities “ permits students to express their creativity and individuality, develop higher-order thinking and cognitive flexibility, and reflect on their communication strategies.” (pg. 170)

As usual, I couldn’t wait to read the activity examples. I just LOVED the poetry activity. It seemed really engaging and fun for the students. The authors did mention that there were differences in enthusiasm and engagement levels between the groups but they did not elaborate on the reasons behind them. I think it would be interesting to learn about it.
Ever still greater example was the one about designing an information kiosk for the zoo! In my view, it had all the components, it was constructive, had a real life need, meaningful, lots of problem-solving and real – form scratch (they needed to interview visitors and staff to understand what would be useful) research opportunities, teamwork, and it was empowering for the children. Most importantly, after a few weeks, they were able to take the role of a coach to teach others, teachers among them, how to use the hypermedia in similar projects. I think this is fantastic!
I am always very grateful that I have decided to take this course because I can learn about the technology and, in this instance, the hypermedia use to foster learning, to allow me to be a better resource for the students. I can not imagine taking the teacher roles that the authors discuss without having the knowledge about technology first.

I found this chapter to be very informative, especially the sections with examples of activities where video could be used.
I also liked to learn about the history of video and television – I have never actually study it and it was interesting to find out the origins. The authors were talking about PBS and educational television – I still watch the programs on PBS. They have great documentaries. Also, I remember watching psychology classes on TV (can not remember which channel), but they were on in the mornings around 6 years ago. In fact, when I was learning English, I would come home from my ESL classes and turn CityTV24 and listen to it and watch it. Because they tell the same thing every 15 minutes, I found it really good practice for me.
Also, when I had my field placement in grade 2, the teachers in that school used to use videotapes to teach the children about animals. They would gather all of the grade 2s and play the video for them. Like the authors in the book suggested, the teachers made the video watching meaningful and engaging by talking about each episode in advance. The children were formulating questions, hypothesizing, and so on. They even had a song they sang before they watched the video. After the video, they discussed it again, compared their notes, etc. and then they were tested on it.
In this case, the program achieved the goal for which it was created. In the authors’ words, “learners are [were] helped to actively process television messages and think about them.” (pg. 124) resulting in effective learning FROM television. However, the authors are right that it is way to often that TV is being used as a babysitter.

Learning WITH television, as the authors argue, is even more effective as “Producing television programming will engage them in active, meaningful learning because they are solving design problems.” (pg. 125). I will not talk about all of the examples they provided in the text. The theater and news examples seemed to be most attractive to me – probably because I would feel confident as their support.

I would like to mention a word about the authors’ explanations about camcorders. One needs to know that I am camcorder dummy, never even had a video camera actually. I found it fascinating to learn a little about how camcorders work! On page 147, the authors say that technology should not be the focus by a tool to learning. Well, I agree with this hundred percent, however, I think that it will need to become the focus before it is a tool. And I found that information about how to teach children about that technology was not mentioned in this chapter. I know that if we were to do the flicker project, I would focus on the camera firs and not on what I will be recording with it. Mind you that was the purpose of the project from my understanding of it. Anyway, on page 147, they talk about close-up, medium-range, long shots, framing, angels, etc. I would have no idea what or what to do with the camera to achieve it. But now that I know that such terms exist in photography, I can research it on my own. I wish I did that for my google lab :0) .

For starters, I have to admit that my understanding of hacking was very limited. Just as the article suggested, I always thought of hackers as people who get rush from creating virus program software or such things. I did hear – of course – of people who engage in identity theft, but didn’t think they were hackers as well.
Furthermore, from my understanding, by definition practically all of us engage in “hacking” activities when we search information about someone, i.e. address of our friend, a phone number to Ryerson’s continuing education department, etc. I, for example, before every course I take search for some information about the professor who will teach it. BTW (which means “by the way” for those who don’t know what that acronym means, like I didn’t) you can check this site out by yourselves http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/SelectTeacher.jsp?sid=1471 .

When I further reflect on the reading, I think that it is a scary thing to know that your information could be accessed by someone. Not long ago I have watched a documentary on TV (I don’t remember the title, but it was news special on CTV) it was about identity theft specialists. They talked about how people were taking over people’s mortgages without them even knowing. So the people were living in their homes and paying mortgages, but the house was “legally sold” to that identity theft people. Anyhow, I just couldn’t imagine how something like that could have happened! What was worst, the police couldn’t do anything about it! On papers it looked like a legal transaction with signatures, all the required documentation, and so on. There was a detective in Vancouver, however, who was working on it, but with out much support from the government. That is why it is even more scary! To know that the authorities, the guardians of law are not doing their jobs to protect people’s rights, who will? I wish the article talked about strategies or suggestions of how should one protect themselves, other than trying not to put personal information on the net. Is there a way of protecting oneself at all? I know one thing for certain, it would be awfully painful to be stocked by a hacker, wouldn’t it? You can run but you can not hide would be a very suitable phrase to use in such situation

It was a very long but very informative chapter. For some reason I was very drawn to the section on “Knowledge-Building Communities”. I think that indirectly it also provides some kind of guidelines, which would do “justice” to the learning process when evaluation students work. I also know, by my own example, that in order for learning to be intended, it needs to be meaningful, thus, intrinsically motivated. However, I do not have my opinion yet on about internet based Knowledge-Building Communities, but I am looking forward to learning more about it through experience.

With regards to the Learning Communities, I do not see how internet learning communities differ for the physical classroom “cliques”- as the authors call it. Isn’t it developmentally appropriate for 12 – 13 year olds to start grouping according to their interests? Overall I like that book a lot, and of course I agree with the authors that children need to work together towards a common goal. I am just thrown off by their constant negative criticism towards physical classrooms (check out this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophilia). The authors say that “Classrooms typically are not communities, because students are disconnected or are competing with one another. The students do not share common learning goals or interests.” Maybe they had that experience, I didn’t.

Furthermore, I found that the authors contradicted what they have said earlier when they talk about groups in physical classroom and the disadvantages of conferencing – the lack of face to face interaction. I do strongly agree with the concern about clear communication. Skills such as asking for clarification are very important and I find that when a group of people is conferencing at the same time, it is difficult to do, and yet it is crucial to effective communication. It was easy task when I used similar technology like MSN to communicate with my sister because there were only the two of us
On a final note, I have to say that in my view, the younger generation is going to be better than we are at net conferencing because they are practicing those skills already. Just like learning a new language - it is easier for the young than for us who already have our old habits. In my case, I was sick on Monday and decided to stay home and take advantage of the technology. Unfortunately, I encountered a technical problem and I didn't even have the basic trouble shooting skills!
This is one of the reasons I am taking this class, not to be an expert in technology (I do not think I have enough time to become one), but to have enough knowledge and skills to assist and guide children in their learning with technology.

First, I think that this chapter provided me with great many ideas and a much deeper understanding of what the authors mean how the technology, internet in this case, could be used. Before I have read this chapter, I was under the impression that all it was mostly about was posting one’s reflections and ideas in form of blegs. I am very glad and relieved, and IMPRESSED, to learn about the different uses of the Internet that are in place so far! But then again, I do not have lots of knowledge about computers – I was 23 when I first sat and touched one.
Because I work with very young children, I was happy to read about the use of internet in the kindergarten classes and was hoping to see a part on how to implement it with preschoolers. Then I went on the net and searched it with this in mine and found many educational games that could be downloaded to the computer. Children can explore colours, numbers, letters, farm animals etc.
Going back to chapter 3. I found it difficult to stay focused on the reading because I wanted to check all the Websites the author was providing! I have decided that I will create a web on WIKI with all the links to those Websites and then I got enlightened! I thought: “The publisher already did that! They must have so I checked that web out http://www.prenhall.com/jonassen/. It is great and provides links to each chapter – if you didn’t check it out yet – DO! IT IS WORTH IT!

So I have decided that I will take my original project on and will have all the links from chapter 3 or all the chapters on my wiki. I plan to get on it some time this week (as soon as I can, that is), so look it up in near future if you want.

I went off topic again. Instead of recalling the information in this chapter, I will reflect on the reading because I assume that everyone has read it. First, I am happy to finally know what all the acronyms mean! When I read about the bandwidth thing, I thought that my head is going to explode! I am a visual learner and was trying to imagine all the information traveling through channels – you can imagine my brain firing… and burning from overworking.

When I read about distance learning I was skeptical at first. How do we know that the student is actually doing the work and someone else? I was surprised that the author did not give any criticism about that matter. But hey, it is just me, I tend to analyze and overanalyze things. On the other hand, I think that it is a great idea. Like today, for example, I am sick and still can participate in the class from home! Thought I have no idea if I will survive it because I feel that I am not ready for it yet – not enough skills, I think.
“We really ought to be past the time when many students know more about computers than some of their teachers” (pg. 39) I could not agree more. That is why I have decided to take this course. To be able to be a guide and a resource for my students.
I am also very happy that the author talked about the principles or research. It is very important that students know not only how to search for information, but also how to evaluate the information they are getting from different Websites. Therefore, “Learning these critical viewing skills should be mandatory for any students using the Internet to collect information.”(pg. 43). But how about teachers? The author seems to assume that teachers have those skills and does not emphasize that the teachers should be experts in that area first.
I enjoyed the parts of the reading with different ideas how to actively use the Internet and how the author ended each section with relevance to “learning Processes”, “Problem-Solving Processes”, “Teacher Roles”, and “Assessing Learning”. Especially the Assessing Leaning sections were very interesting. I think it is difficult to grade students work. In order to do this a good teacher needs to know each student very well, know their prior knowledge and how much effort goes into their work. I loved the fact that the evaluation should be focusing on the process involved and not on the end product. Because i.e. Johnny could have done a great job on his web page without much effort and time, and Max’s Web page could look much less appealing but he might put a lot of effort and time into creating it. Who should get the better mark? I think that from process oriented perspective the answer should be simple or else we would be hypocritical about it. Anyhow, I think this is the area where lots of changes are happening as to how we evaluate student’s work and many of old habits are still in us.

In Chapter 2 – Problem Solving is Meaningful Learning the authors discuss and describe the different kinds of problem solving dividing them into two major groups of “well-structured” and “ill-structured” ones. The way the authors present their points is comprehensive and logical. Despite the fact that that section takes the most space in this chapter, I find the discussion of what they feel is most “successful” way students learn: problem solving in meaningful situations.
They argue that education should teach students to problem-solve by bringing real life problems (or as I prefer to call them puzzles cause it from my experience it is more appealing to school agers) into the classroom. I completely agree with that notion, and am happy to say that I have been fortuned to be able to observe a teacher who is focusing on doing just that. However, she did not eliminate some of the memorization aspects from her curriculum and I agree with her. I think that memorizing can still be meaningful and a good way of learning for some students. For example, students can come up with an idea to have a concert for i.e. mother’s and have a choice to memorize a poem of their choice. The problem here will be created by the students and they will come up with ideas for it. I believe that memorization is a good exercise for our brains. I am not a supporter of grading or evaluating learners knowledge or abilities based on tests of their memory, however. And that is the big difference, which I think sometimes we forget about as we look at things and see them either black or white.
Another interesting point the authors make is that the teacher should be a model and a guide. Therefore, the teacher should have knowledge and experience (the more experience the better troubleshooter) in problem solving processes (on page 26 one can find guide to good information research – I remember those from taking Research Methods 303 and 306). When I had my field placement in grade 2, the children were coming to me asking how to spell words. There were dictionaries in the class but they looked as if they were never used and in fact, the children did not know how to use them. I took the time to model how I was looking to figure out the spelling by using a dictionary. I saw the children use them afterwards. I could also see how empowered the children were that they could problem solve on their own instead of waiting in line in front of the teacher waiting for an answer.
I am excited to learn about using technology to construct mental models of how we know what we know. So far I only used to use markers and paper to do i.e. mapping, braking down the information into small bits, etc.

hey guys, I looked up how to create the link to our page.

1. go to "My LJ"
2. go to "manage" "friends"
3. click on "Edit Custom Friends Groups"
4. click on "cool cats" - check if all of our names are there
5. make sure you make it [public]
6. click "save changes"
those steps were to insure that the group is there.

now to see the page:

from where you stopped
1. go to "Journal" "..."following "friends" CLICK ON THE ...ONLY
2. this will link you with "friends filter" page
3. check mark the "cool cats" option and
4. click view
5. congratulations you are viewing our group's entries only!

6. click on the address in the address window and copy the address - you will needed for the next step.

how to add it to your info:

1. go to "journal" "info"
2. click on the "edit personal information" link (located above your infor)
3. the 5th line down says: "webpage URL" PASTE the address there now.
4 save changes
5. go back to "Journal" "info" and the link will be there!

have fun

I hope more people can use this

have fun everyone and let us know if you know some cool things we can do with the livejournal.
i can not stop playing around.
but i have to get to the reading...

First thing I “took” from the reading was some clarification of what webbloging means. I did not know that it basically meant journaling where you enter data in chronological manner. “Blogosphere” (interlinked blogs) is a completely new word to me and if someone said that in a sentence I would probably look at them as if they were talking Latin to me. The word document underlines all those words as mistakes too – even blog is not a word to the Microsoft Word software.
I have to admit that I was wondering about the purpose of putting one’s thoughts on a web for everyone to read. I didn’t understand why someone would want other people to “get in their heads”. Therefore, that was another thing I wanted to “get” from the article – an explanation why are webblogs successful. To me, it seems as if people are longing for the social interactions – I find computers very addictive and individual based phenomenon – but as a humanist, I still can not understand why not go out and have person to person contacts rather than sitting in front of a dead screen. The use of blogging as portfolio in education, where the students are more involved in their own education and have a chance to reflect on their own learning, makes much more sense to me. I just wonder if the young (school age) students would be true them selves if they knew that everyone could read their entries? We know very well that peer pressure has a great effect on how children behave and what they say – even though it is not them to do so. However, it the blogs could be kept more private, I think it would be a great! I can see the great advantage of it – saving trees!!!
I guess I have been skeptical about the webbloging business so far. From my perspective (of a computer dummy), however, this is a new and unknown ground that I am trying to navigate and understand. I can see and appreciate the advantages of it as well, conversely. For example, the fact that I can access all the course info and connect with other students and professor on line is a great advantage.
I do not understand what the author means by saying that webbloging contributes to the academic research – for students. I was under the impression that webbloging was being published in an informal form, unlike scholarly articles or official websites. I would definitely want a clarification to that point.
Hey! I am definitely a newbie who learns by making mistakes!
I can also see how the teacher and then student as a facilitator works because we already practice it in the course. Jason’s journals are great role models, and then, Angela for example has the role of a facilitator being a student at the same time. She has more experience and I can learn form her.
I definitively agree with the author that first students should know the technology as the fundament – I can identify myself as knowing how to use the computer to some extend, but when I have a problem and the technical support asks me questions about the technical things, I am just “green” and don’t know.
P.S.
I find if very cool that the author cited Rousseau in this high-tech oriented article – and he did it well. I could just picture how I could use computer presentation to teach i.e. history and social studies together.

I am very happy to report that I have been able to customise my webpage! I found out how to change the colour of background, text, size of the font, etc. the only thing is that it takes VERY LONG TIME to do things like that. I do have fun playing around, but the fact that I can not preview how things will look as I am doing it adds to the time I am spending on it because I am going back and fro to check the look of the journal.
anyhow, it is fun and I have an excuse to stay on the computer for longer time - I tell my husband that I have to.

First of all I would like to pat myself on the back for finally setting this thing up! I am computer challenged so for me it is a big accomplishment.

I have read the first chapter in the text and first of all would like to comment on how easy it is to read. As to the content, at first I thought to myself “please not another reading about learning theories!”. As I kept reading, however, I was nicely surprised to read about learning from different perspective. In addition, I liked the way the question “what learning is” was broken into the subcategories and their descriptions – really easy to understand, though I was waiting for real life examples to follow. When I read the paragraph “learning is knowledge”, I could not stop thinking about myself in the first class (yesterday) trying to set up hotmail account in order to get MSN account, and then livejournal, and so on… I found it very stressful and as if I was discovering something on my own – like a toddler – and I was afraid I will break something! I enjoyed reading the part “learning is chaos” the most. I guess I affiliated it with the spiral curriculum which I experienced in Danny Bakan’s class. Sometimes we just need to trust the process and let the anxiety go. This brings me to the point the authors of the book make about learning occurring in synergy. However, as I kept reading the text, I was under an impression that the authors are trying to convince me that technology is the best way to teach at all times. I am very excited and VERY fascinated by new technology, but I do not think technology should be overused. There should be limits. I am saying that because one of my five year olds in the childcare has told me that she did not need to learn to print using pen EVER because she would use the computer or talk to a machine and it will write things for her. I do not know if that it is such a good idea. I think it is great for the people who can not use their hands or what not, but not just because they are lazy! Anyhow, I am open for discussion in this topic. I am definitely an advocate of educational materials using technology. Maybe I am wrong. I am just afraid that too much technology in children’s lives will have negative effects on their social and even physical skills.